Phytoremediation Potentials of Selected Plants in Industrially Contaminated Soils

Waste discharges into River Challawa in Kano, Nigeria is posing serious environmental hazards.The present study was therefore designed to examine the potentials of Jatropha (Jatrophacurcas), Neem (Azadirachtaindica) and Baobab (Adansoniadigitata) for phytoremediation of some heavy metalsin the industrially contaminated soils of Challawain Kano, Nigeria.The plants were grown under hydroponic greenhouse conditions for thirteen weeks andlevels of metals in plants, soil and effluent water were determined using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer.The mean concentrations of the metals ranged from 4.33±0.02mg/kgPb to 453.15 ±42.32mg/kgFeand 2.6 ± 0.01 mg/kg to 114.6 ± 23.24 mg/kg for plants grown in the contaminated and control soils respectively.The bioaccumulation factors (BAC>1) indicates metal contamination of the soils and thus can be used for their phytoextraction.The results suggests that the investigated plants are potentially useful for remediating heavy metals from Challawacont animated soils.